Here is the Proposed School Boundary Area for the McKenney Hills Elementary School/DCC#29 site that was used to calculate the Traffic Study posted here.
This is the type of information that can be found in the Exhibits to a Traffic Study for new school construction.
Do parents and community members get to see this information before a new school construction project is approved by the Board of Education or the Montgomery County Planning Board? Only if they ask for it.
Proposed Boundary for McKenney Hills School
Hmm, so this really isn't about the trees then, is it? Providing information when asked sounds fine. What I would really like know Ms. Sartucci, is where you would have the 650 children slated to start at McKenney Hills in Fall 2012 go to school if you get your way and construction on this desperately needed school is delayed? Leaving aside the rational argument that the process has been transparent and has involved the community, where would you suggest children go to school if Oakland Terrace (designed for 450 children) is enrolled at 900 plus?
ReplyDeleteYour children aren't facing that future, are they? Just answer that question.
@Hmm
ReplyDeleteProviding information when asked? That only works if a community KNOWS what to ask for. If a community doesn't know they get completely left out of the planning process. Case in point, the McKenney Hills construction.
The Board of Education approved the artist's drawing without reviewing the Feasibility Study and without knowing what the final plans for the site would look like. Community members and parents had no idea what was really coming to the site.
By the way, where is the Feasibility Study? That document that taxpayers paid $39,000 for seems to be missing. Anyone have a copy?
If you were following this project you would know that the parents have been told the school won't open with 650 students! They "think" the school will open with unused seats.
If MCPS had a REAL planning process someone might have noticed two years ago that McKenney Hills was EMPTY and Oakland Terrace and other schools were overcrowded. Instead, MCPS DEMOLISHED a perfectly usable school building and left students in nearby schools in classroom trailers. The McKenney Hills building was DEMOLISHED in the SUMMER of 2009.
The building that was DEMOLISHED had received extensive upgrades over the last few years. Yet, that usable building was demolished. What kind of planning was that?
The MCPS school "Planning" process is broken. Planning decisions are being made in isolation by Superintendent Weast and the long term consequences from the lack of thoughtful, transparent planning will be felt by communities all over Montgomery County for decades to come.
Want to get the kids at Oakland Terrace out of classroom trailers today? Great. Re-open the Dennis Avenue Elementary School on Dennis Avenue. There sits a school site that can be reclaimed. Overbuilding on the McKenney Hills site will not cure the overcrowding in the Silver Spring/DCC area. Overbuilding one site is not going to do it.
There are numerous school sites in the Silver Spring area that can be reclaimed for schools. The enrollment growth and class size reduction classroom needs can be spread out in the area so as to not stress any one location. Long term planning CAN be done.
Or, in the alternative, the 7th largest elementary school in the county can be built on the McKenney Hills site.
Oh, and you and I both know your "7th largest elementary school" data is flawed. You are basing that on the school's future projections of maximum numbers of students. But I thought you said there won't even be 650 students when the school opens.
ReplyDeleteYou can't have your argument both ways so which is it? Will the school service 650 plus kids and be large? Or will it have unused seats?
Ms. Sartucci,
ReplyDeleteI would listen to your arguments if the information that you provided was factually correct. The McKenney Hills school was NOT sitting empty two years ago. The school was an alternative learning center for MCPS students during the 2008 - 2009 school year. I know that is the case because it also used to be our communities voting location and I remember being there to vote in 2008 election. So, the summer of 2009, when the building was taken down, the last set of students had just left the building.
The reasons for not continuing to try to find ways update or renovate that old school building were because...well, it was old. The infrastructure of buildings built in the 1950s/1960s means that they are not state of the art and cannot meet the demands of today's modern classrooms. They need to be wired for high speed internet access, they need smart boards not just blackboards, etc. The teaching needs of today's classrooms are light years away from what a 1950s-style building can provide. Our children need high functioning, internet access classrooms in order to be able to compete in today's wired world. That's what the new school building can provide.
And I'm not even going to address the building on Dennis Ave. That is currently being used as a low cost clinic serving our county's vulnerable who are without alternative access to healthcare. You are really asking our community to get behind the idea of turning those people out and letting them go without needed vaccinations and health services?
Your so-called solutions make no sense. Get back to me when you have some that are actually viable and perhaps this parent will get on board with your "coalition". Otherwise, you just sound like you have an axe to grind with Weast but offer no true alternatives or solutions to our county's school overcrowding issues.
@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteActually, I don't know you at all. You are anonymous.
But to help you understand where this new school will fall in size I have looked at it two more ways - Square Footage and State Rated Capacity.
Either way, McKenney Hills is coming out in the top 10 out of 131 elementary schools. Bottom line is that Superintendent Weast is building bigger schools and this is going to be one of the biggest ones.
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2010/10/building-bigger-elementary-school.html
@ other Anonymous person or same person:
ReplyDeleteI said the building was demolished in 2009.
2009-10 is a school year, 2010-11 is a school year - that's two school years without students. 2 years that overcrowding was not alleviated by the use of this building.
Dedicated school land is dedicated for the use of public school children FIRST, no matter how noble the current use. The current use of the Dennis Avenue building is a non-school use that could be moved to another facility. Separate budgets are involved and in the case of public school land, that is State tax dollars that are used to purchase this land and build the schools. When the public school land is turned over for another use it is typically with the proviso that in the event of school overcrowding the building will be turned back to the school system for school children.
But you are more than welcome to argue that Dennis Avenue Elementary School should not be reclaimed. What is your argument for all of the other dedicated school sites in Silver Spring to not be re-opened as schools?
If McKenney Hills was "old" then why was it being used as a school and why was MCPS spending Capital Budget funds to keep it in good shape?
MCPS put $88,000 in to McKenney Hills in 2003 for a new HVAC system.
That means that taxpayers only got 6 years out of that major investment.
But you refuse, just refuse to answer this question don't you? DO YOU HAVE A CHILD FACED WITH ATTENDING A DANGEROUSLY OVERCROWDED OAKLAND TERRACE?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you won't post this comment because the answer is no. Well I do have a child who will attend this school and I am asking nicely...please don't screw this up for our children. Please, please back off and let our CHILDREN get the education they deserve.
Long term school facility planning is about more than just one child. And if you aren't getting the big picture, nothing about overcrowding in MCPS will change with this new school. What do you think is going to "protect" your child from overcrowding in a new building?
ReplyDeleteIf you think that your child is in a "dangerous" situation then what about all of the other children countywide in exactly the same situation?
Matsunaga ES opened in 2001 with trailers and has had 1,000 students ever since. It was built to hold 659.
Are you fully aware of the plans for the McKenney Hills site? Board members O'Neill and Docca were very concerned about the access that pedestrians walking to Metro will have to the school. And Board members didn't even get to see the details of the plan. They don't even know that MCPS is constructing a walkway from the entrance to the school right along the windows to the kindergarten classrooms and into the woods. Security issues? Has this been discussed by parents?
MCPS has taken school planning issues out of the public eye and all of these decisions are being made behind closed doors.
ReplyDeleteParents/community members and teachers have no assurances that MCPS will work to alleviate overcrowding. There are no guidelines, there are no maximums that will trigger action. The Board of Education gutted the Long Range Planning Process in 2005 because they were no longer concerned about capacity and land use issues.
http://parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com/2010/10/lost-school-planning-process.html
Until the safeguards of the original Policy FAA are brought back, there are no guarantees.